336 
PHALAllOPODID^. 
On throwing a piece of breads too large to be swallowed^ the coot 
took it up in its foot^ as a parrot does a nut^ and pecked it to 
pieces. The food was held in its curiously-formed foot as perfectly 
and steadily as possible. Those possessed of tame bald coots may 
try whether they possess similar powers/^ 
When boating on the Lake of Lucerne, Switzerland, towards 
the end of June 1826, I remarked the coots to be numerous 
about the reedy borders, and particularly tame. 
THE GEEY PHALAEOPE. 
Fhalaropus lohatus, Linn, (sp.) 
Tringa lohata ,, 
Is an occasional visitant, more especially late in the 
autumn. 
Although it can only in strictness be called an occasional, as 
distinguished from a regular or annual, visitant, it has frequently 
been obtained within the last twenty years from north to south 
of the island. 
The first instance of its occurrence known to me took place 
on the 22nd of September, 1818 (the date ascertained from Mr. 
Templeton^s journal), when one which appeared on some water 
in the district of the Ealls,^^ near Belfast, was wounded in the 
wing, and came into the possession of John Sinclaire, Esq., who 
kept it on one of his ponds for some months. It was fed on 
worms, was very tame, and its buoyancy on the water met with 
the highest admiration : it is described to have been light as a 
cork upon the surface. Another was obtained near Clifden, on 
the shore of Belfast Bay, on the 9th of April, 1822.’^ Memoranda 
kindly communicated by Dr. J. D. Marshall, inform me of a 
phalarope which was presented to him having been shot near 
Clontarf, Dublin Bay, in November 1827 ; and of two birds 
having been killed in the same quarter in the spring of the year 
1828 : some of these which he weighed were nine drachms. 
* Dr. J, L. Drummond. 
